Blog posts in the Campaign news category

Our vuvuzelas were out last week as we celebrated scooping an award at the inaugural ‘The COGS’ Marketing Services Awards, from The Institute of Promotional Marketing and Promotional Marketing Magazine.

Hundreds of industry folk turned out for the awards lunch held at The Avenue and hosted by funny man and all round nice chap, Paul Ross. The first of their kind awards recognise that many of the great marketing campaigns could not happen without the hard work that goes on behind the scenes to implement the good ideas and make them work.

Voted for anonymously by the client, we walked away with the award for Digital (web) agency. Big thanks to our fabulous clients voted for us – you know who you are and we couldn’t have done it without you. So here’s to you guys, your support really does mean a lot to us.

After months of careful planning and build-up we’re excited to announce that last night Endemol and Channel 4’s new live and big-money gameshow, ‘The Million Pound Drop’ was launched – featuring a live social play-along game developed by us along with our partners Monterosa

The Million Pound Drop online game is broadcast-syncronised, giving fans of the show the chance to experience, first-hand, the excitement and tension of the live shows as they pitch their wits against the show’s TV contestants.

Mirroring the main show, players of the online game are given a virtual £1m, then must try to keep as much of their cash as possible, as they tackle the same questions in real-time as the TV contestants. Answers are made by placing a portion of their winnings over whichever trapdoors they believe holds the correct answer – a wrong answer will see the money swallowed through the trapdoor.

The show’s host, Davina McCall is upping the engagement-factor even further discussing live on-air how well the players of the online game are doing compared to the TV contestants.

Of the new game, Justin Gorman, Head of Entertainment, Channel 4 says “The interactive element to The Million Pound Drop adds another exciting dimension to this brand new entertainment show.  It’s a mind-blowing concept to consider that potentially 1000s of viewers for the very first time with a game show on tv will be able to play along at the same time as watching this show.  I am sure it will not only add to the viewers experience, but also heighten the tension in the studio as contestants will be aware that the viewers will also be interactively playing along and against them.”

You’ve heard us say it before but the trend towards two-screen interactive and social TV is one that particularly excites us. In particular, the high intensity of the Million Pound Drop live shows, mixed with the real-time play along functionality and integration with social media channels is one that creates a deeply involving, engaging experience that only serves to heighten the audiences viewing pleasure. Thanks to the great folk at Endemol and Channel 4.

This month, we were pleased to be invited by netmag to take part in their website build- off – a section of the magazine in which three web designers are challenged to tackle the same brief.

The topic of challenge was to design a website aimed at children. Not a promotional site for a product, but rather an educational one that looks at how children use the web differently. Needless to say, the brief was right up our street having worked on a number of websites for children’s brands including CBBC’s Tracy Beaker, Cbeebies Poetry Pie and Nickelodeon.

Featured in issue 202, the site has one clear mission – to inspire kids to pick up and learn a musical instrument.

21st century kids feed on diet of non-stop TV music talent shows – we wanted to build on this appetite but get them off the couch – to empower and encourage participation – to draw out a new generation of musical creativity beyond the realms of manufactured plastic pop.

Childhood is clearly the best place to start learning an instrument. This said, it’s a fact that music lessons don’t always appeal or are too costly for some families which is why we thought the web would be the perfect environment to reach all and offer a fully immersive musical journey, spurred on by fun, discovery and learning.

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